This Sticky Quadrotor Can Literally Be A Fly On The Wall

In the not too distant future the world is going to be abuzz with quadrotors flying about making deliveries, monitoring traffic and spying on everyone: a skill this gecko-like craft is particularly adept at. Thanks to a special dry adhesive it’s able to stick and unstick from surfaces, letting it land and perch almost anywhere.

Developed as a joint research project between Stanford and the University of Maryland, the quadrotor is an impressive example of biomimicry, where scientists attempt to recreate features and capabilities of living things. At the moment the quadrotor sticks best to smooth acrylic surfaces, but eventually, like a gecko, it should be able to cling anywhere letting it watch and listen like the proverbial fly on the wall. [YouTube via Popular Science]

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You're kidding me.
I did this exact same thing only just the other day with one of my micro quads and a big blob of blue-tack stuck to the top of it.
The trick is to rise up to the ceiling, then just as it touches, you really ply on the power so it pushes itself up against the surface.
The blu-tak did have to be well kneaded first so it was as sticky as possible, but it stayed put.

Some double sided tape worked well too, but left a bit of itself behind when I pulled it back off.

That's pretty much all this is I think. Just a demo of ongoing study into adhesives.

How is that different from dropping or throwing any other sticky object.
Releasing the adhesive and and being able to fly away is important.
All they've done is shown they can stick one object to another. Well done.

There are videos out there of quads producing enough lift to stick to walls and ceilings by themselves and they fly away.
That's far more impressive.